b0182Horace August Sorensen Papers,
ca. 1950-1970A Register of the Collection at the Utah State
Historical SocietyUtah State Historical Society1999Finding aid encode in EAD 1.0 by Craig Ringgenberg using XMetaL
1.0,
1999.Finding aid written in
English.

The machine-readable finding aid for this collection was created by
the

Copyright Utah State Historical Society. All
rights reserved. Reproduction, storage or transmittal of this work, or any
part of it, in any form or by any means, for commercial purposes, is prohibited
without prior authorization of the Utah State Historical Society. This work may
be used for scholarly and other non-commercial use provided that the Utah State
Historical Society is acknowledged as the creator and copyright holder.

Summary Description
Utah State Historical SocietyMss B 182 Sorensen, Horace August, 1899-1977.
Horace August Sorensen
Papers,
ca. 1950-19702.5 lin. ft. (5 boxes)Furniture dealer and historical promoter. The primary focus of
the collection concerns the establishment and operation of Pioneer Village, a
historic park. Day to day memoranda and receipts are not included. Another
substantial file are the papers of the National Pony Express Centennial
Association, 1957-1962. The correspondence includes substantial operating
detail. A third section concerns the Sons of the Utah Pioneers, their meeting
and projects. Some limited attention is devoted to the Corinne Railroad Museum.
Finally, there are a few papers from the South East Furniture Company and
photos.
Topics:
Indians of North America -- Utah.Pony express.Retail Trade -- Furniture.
Persons:
Bennett, Wall
Chappell, Frederick William
Frederickson, Gertrude
Smith, Waddell
Young, Brigham,
1801-1877
Organizations:
National Pony Express
Centennial AssociationPioneer Village (Salt Lake
City, Utah)Railroad Museum, Corinne
(Utah)Sons of the Utah Pioneers
(Salt Lake City, Utah)South East Furniture
Company (Salt Lake City, Utah)
Places:
Box Elder County (Utah)Corinne (Utah)Golden Spike National Monument
(Promontory, Utah)Sugar House Park (Salt Lake City,
Utah)
Form or Genre:
Slides.
Background
Biographical Note

Horace Sorensen was born 6 February 1899, in Ephraim, Utah. His
father had come to Utah from Denmark in 1875 and worked as a druggist until he
started a furniture and hardware store. The family lived in an apartment above
the store and Horace was born there. He started working in the store at age 12,
but his mother said he learned retailing from babyhood in the Sanpete County
Co-op. Far from getting his fill, Horace's childhood experience in the family
stores created an enthusiasm for merchandising which he retained throughout his
life.

Sorensen went to Snow College in Ephraim and then served a two year
mission for the LDS Church in the Western states. When he returned from his
mission, he studied business at the University of Utah, from which he graduated
in 1925. Later that year he and his father started South East Furniture Company
in Sugarhouse, which as a coal and lumber center in the 1920s appeared to have
business potential. The year 1925 was important to his personal life in still
another way, he married Ethel Melville, who had graduated from the University
of Utah the year before him and was teaching at Emerson School.

As the business got on, Sorensen turned to his first hobby of horses
and horse shows behind his home in East Mill Creek. He brought "American
Saddlebred" horses from Kentucky, and put on many horse show benefits for civic
and church groups in the large show ring behind his house. His horses also
showed in Arizona, Colorado and Idaho. During World War II, he turned his
stables into cow barns for Holstein cows and raised turkeys and acres of
tomatoes to help the war effort.

At the conclusion of the war Sorensen turned his attention to civic
affairs. His petition to have the old state prison become a state park led to
the creation of Sugarhouse Park. He joined the Sons of the Utah Pioneers and
his activity and leadership in that organization gave it new life and growth,
as it had become a paper organization during the world war. One innovation was
the re-creation of the Mormon Battalion of 1847 and the re-enactment of their
trek in the war in Mexico.

Sorensen's most enduring enterprise, Pioneer Village, grew out of
his merchandising experience and his desire for civic improvement. A news
report in 1974, recounting Sorensen's life, noted that he began to accept
antiques and other old furniture as trade-ins at South East Furniture. During
the horse show days Sorensen had bought some old wagons and coaches. He
remodeled the barn and began a small museum of pioneer furniture and
conveyances. When the Wanship Dam was built many old buildings from the town of
Rockport were donated to Sorensen before the town was inundated and the small
museum of pioneer relics became a "Village." Too big and too extensive for one
person Pioneer Village became the project of the Sons of the Utah Pioneers. In
1954, the Village was deeded to that organization.

As the first centennial for the Pony Express approached in 1960,
Sorensen, Pioneer Village, and the Sons of the Utah Pioneers became active in
preparing for its celebration. In the early 1960s, Sorensen and the Sons of the
Utah Pioneers began the railroad museum and village at Corinne, Utah, and began
to prepare for the Golden Spike Centennial celebration the completion of the
railroad across the western United States.

In 1975, Horace Sorensen had to withdraw from his many civic
activities because of ill health. Pioneer Village was moved from his estate to
the Lagoon amusement park. This enthusiastic merchant who used display,
acquisition, and sales techniques to assemble and celebrate Utah history died
on 3 May 1977.

Scope and Content

The Horace A. Sorensen Collection consists of papers pertaining to
South East Furniture Company, the Pioneer Village and the Sons of the Utah
Pioneers. The collection also provides information on the Corinne Railroad
Museum and the National Pony Express Centennial Association. One valuable
characteristic of the collection are the numerous photographs which accompanied
the files. Many of these are appended to eleven bound scrapbooks. The loose
photographs which document the various projects, conclude each subject
division, while those of general history interest and not necessarily relating
to Sorensen's life work have been separated from the main body of the papers
and are catalogued as part of the photograph library.

The collection begins with Sorensen's personal papers. These are
incomplete and related solely to his public profile. Civic achievement and
public recognition characterize the majority of documents in the collection.
Three speeches are included -- an address to the Unitarian Church about the
meaning of history and the role of Pioneer Village, a dedicatorial prayer for a
plaque and park bench, and remarks made at a national retailers' meeting.

Before his more active days of civic involvement, Sorensen's hobby was
livestock breeding and selling, with particular attention to show horses, and
several documents indicate the nature and extent of that effort. Only a few
items in the file concern retailing expertise; one of them is his participation
in the Brand Name Retailer project. Several photographs, including one of his
portrait being painted, complete the personal section of the papers.

The Sons of the Utah Pioneers material provides a general but limited
look at that organization. Since only a few financial reports and meeting
minutes are included, the most substantive of the papers are the business
letters and the project reports which summarize the work with Pioneer Village.
The few "treks" and "encampments" and other special events noted by reports,
invitations, and program brochures, partially indicate the life and affairs of
the organization. A series of news clippings reporting their activities over
the years, as well as a file of photographs, complete the Sons of the Utah
Pioneers files.

By far the most extensive portion of the collection concerns the
Pioneer Village. Pioneer Village was the major public accomplishment of Horace
Sorensen's life, and the eight photo/news clipping albums documenting its
development have already been noted. The history and guide information which
introduces this material, provides a complete summary of the Village, its
origin and the development of its buildings and collections. There are only a
few financial reports.

The most complete group of papers in the Sorensen collection are those
documents pertaining to the National Pony Express Centennial. The miscellaneous
business papers contain internal memoranda including notices of meetings,
accomplishments of different units and updating of directors' addresses. The
correspondence files in the Pony Express section are extensive. The press
releases show the professionalism with which the volunteer organization
approached public relations and information. The public information contains
historical sketches, announcements of events, and reports on objectives and
accomplishments.

The papers regarding the Corinne Railroad Museum have a particular
merit compared to the rest of the Sorensen collection. For their narrow scope,
they show more clearly than the other sections the internal workings of the
organization and indirectly indicate Horace Sorensen's business dealings. The
first folder contains reports from a workman on the construction and renovation
of what became the Corinne Railroad Museum, its buildings, trains, and
equipment. The collection also includes most of the museum's business receipts
from 1975.

Much of the correspondence from Horace Sorensen seeks congressional
action in transforming Promontory Summit into a National Monument. Other
letters discuss preparation for the Golden Spike Centennial; still others are
specific construction or renovation requests. The speeches and writings include
three typescripts of Sorensen's

The Importance of Corinne and Promontory Summit to
the History of the West and a speech of appreciation delivered at the
opening of the Corinne Museum.
Series Descriptions

The Horace August Sorensen Papers are the physical property of the
Utah Historical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah. Literary rights, including
copyright, may belong to the authors or their heirs and assigns. Please contact
the Historical Society for information regarding specific use of this
collection.